Complete Balance - Clinical Massage Therapist

🧹 Your broom handle is secretly a rehab tool.

If you’re dealing with a frozen shoulder or shoulder impingement, moving the arm on its own can feel impossible or painful. Using a broom handle (or walking stick) lets your good arm do the work, gently guiding the sore shoulder through a range it can’t manage alone.

Here I’m taking the shoulder into flexion (lifting forwards and up), horizontal abduction (bringing the arm away from the body and up towards the side of the head) and extension (arm behind you), keeping it slow and controlled.

A few things to keep in mind:
✔️ Move to the point of a stretch or mild discomfort, not sharp pain
✔️ Slow and steady, no bouncing or forcing
✔️ Little and often beats one big session
✔️ Keep your shoulders relaxed, not hitched up to your ears

This works well for both frozen shoulder and impingement, but how far and how hard you push differs between them, and shoulder pain isn’t always what it seems. It’s worth getting it assessed so you know you’re working on the right thing.

If your shoulder is stiff, painful, or not improving, I work with shoulder problems, chronic pain and post-surgery recovery here in Worthing. Book via the link in bio or DM me 💬

If you’re interested in rebounding at home I have one for sale on FB Marketplace! It’s £110, would now cost you £209! 😊

It is a great form of exercise, if you’re interested let me know.

Frozen Shoulder: What You Need to Know!

Ever had shoulder pain that just won’t budge — and then stiffness that makes reaching for your seatbelt or fastening a bra feel impossible? You might be dealing with frozen shoulder (adhesive capsulitis).

The three stages:
🔴 Freezing (2–9 months) — pain, often worse at night, gradually stiffening
🟠 Frozen (4–12 months) — pain eases but stiffness peaks, especially reaching behind your back
🟢 Thawing (5–26 months) — movement slowly returns

It can take 1–3 years to fully resolve — patience really is key.

Who’s affected?
Women are more commonly affected than men (roughly 60–70% of cases), especially between ages 40–60. It’s also more common in people with diabetes or thyroid conditions.

The good news: Manual therapy and guided movement can support you through each stage and help protect your range of motion along the way.

If shoulder stiffness is holding you back, get in touch — I’d love to help. 💙

📍 Complete Balance, Worthing

Feeling Fed Up From Shoulder Pain?

💪 Why Heavy & Slow Beats Light & Fast for Tendon Health

If you caught today’s video — standing banded hip flexor, hip abduction, and hip extension (band at mid-foot for flexion/abduction, moved to ankle for extension) — you’ll have noticed something different: a strong band, low reps, high resistance.

This isn’t just “harder for the sake of it.” It’s how we build resilient tendons.
🔬 The science bit:
Tendons don’t respond well to lots of light reps — they respond to LOAD. Heavy, slow resistance training stimulates collagen turnover and remodelling within the tendon itself, increasing its capacity to tolerate strain before it becomes irritated or painful. Think of it as teaching the tissue to handle more, gradually, rather than just fatiguing the muscle around it.
For anyone managing hip flexor, glute medius, or hip extensor tendon issues, this approach — heavy load, low reps, full control — is one of the most evidence-supported ways to reduce irritability over time and build a tendon that copes better with daily life and activity.

⏳ How long until you feel it?
Tendons are slow tissue — patience is part of the programme:
🔹 2–6 weeks: pain and irritability often start to settle
🔹 6–12 weeks: noticeable improvements in strength and load tolerance
🔹 3–6 months: real structural adaptation within the tendon itself

Consistency is everything here. Sporadic heavy sessions won’t cut it — it’s the regular, progressive loading over months that rebuilds a resilient tendon.
If you’re dealing with a nagging hip, groin, or glute issue that just won’t settle, this kind of targeted loading (guided and progressed properly) could be exactly what’s missing from your recovery.
📍 Complete Balance, Worthing

New client today, two problems 👇

Shoulder pain + Achilles pain — plus hypermobility to work around.

🔍 Shoulder: ROM assessment revealed ACJ impingement, caused by a tight pec minor and rotator cuff/deltoid compensation.

🔍 Ankle: poor dorsiflexion + early bunion, both tendinopathy-related.

We treated it, then built her a home plan:
🎾 Tennis ball trigger point work — calf, soleus & shoulders
🦶 Toe spreaders
📿 Physio band + rotator cuff exercises
🏃 Ankle strengthening for her running

Shoulder ROM improved. Ankle felt better. Same day.

This is what clinical massage looks like — assess, treat, and homework so the results don’t stop when you leave 💪

📍 Worthing | Book via link in bio





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Chronic pain isn’t “in your head” — but it does live in your nervous system. As a Clinical Massage Therapist, the majority of what I treat day-to-day is chronic pain.

When we’re in fight, flight or fright, our sympathetic nervous system ramps up pain signalling to protect us. That’s useful after an acute injury. But if this stays switched on past around 6 months, pain can persist long after tissues have healed — this is chronic pain.

It’s also common alongside autoimmune conditions, hEDS, neurodivergence, and menopause, where the nervous system is often already working harder.

The key isn’t pushing through or resting completely — it’s identifying your triggers and learning to pace. Small, sustainable steps that keep you active without tipping your system into flare-up.

I recommended the use of the Visible app - you don’t need to sign up for the 12mths, there is a monthly option and 3mths will provide a trend. The Visible app lets you track energy, symptoms and activity patterns day-to-day, so you can actually see your triggers and pacing thresholds rather than guessing — turning “pacing” from a vague idea into a data-backed plan.

If chronic pain is running your life, let’s talk about it. 📍 Worthing, West Sussex
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